


March Fourth

by ladyhoneydarlinglove



Series: What We Know (And What We Don't) [2]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-28
Updated: 2013-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-21 14:13:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/901216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyhoneydarlinglove/pseuds/ladyhoneydarlinglove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An ex-boyfriend of Cecil's drops by.</p>
            </blockquote>





	March Fourth

**Author's Note:**

> prompt; ghost

Carlos wakes to the sensation of kisses being peppered against his neck, light and ticklish. He turns, a lazy smile gracing his lips, and Cecil presses their mouths together, kissing Carlos in a languid, lazy fashion. “Morning,” Cecil murmurs. “It’s Sunday, right?”

“Yes,” Carlos answers, glancing at his wristwatch, the only timepiece in Night Vale he still trusts. “Sunday the fourth.”

Carlos feels Cecil freeze. “The _fourth_?” Cecil gasps. “But—No, it can’t be the fourth yet—” He grabs Carlos’ arm, eyes going wide as he looks at the date. “Oh dear,” Cecil stutters as he scrambles out of bed. “Oh dear, oh dear, _oh shit—_ ”

“Cecil, what’s wrong?” Carlos asks, startled by this sudden display of distress from the normally calm to a fault Cecil.

“Oh, I don’t want to talk about it!” Cecil moans as he stumbles into his clothes. “I should have known it was coming, but I’ve been so _busy_ lately, and—Oh never mind, it doesn’t matter now.” He finishes pulling a sweater over his head. “I’ll just… I’m going out for a bit, I’ll be back in a jiffy! Please don’t leave the house while I’m gone!” He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes, and on Cecil, it just looks _wrong_.

“Cecil, wait!” Carlos calls, jumping from the bed and darting after him. “Cecil—Damnit, come back here!”

He catches Cecil just as the other man reaches the front door. “Cecil! What on earth—Who the hell is that?” he demands, attention sudden diverted to the person pressed up against the door window. A ghost of some kind, if Carlos had to guess, given his pearly white translucence and what appear to be part of a car door sticking out of his back.

“Oh _damn_ ,” Cecil hisses, slumping against the door. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to explain. But I suppose there’s no getting around it now. Carlos, this is Jason.” He gestures at the window. “As you can see, he’s a ghost. He’s also an ex-boyfriend.”

“Ah.” Carlos peers at Jason more closely. “He looks… young,” he observes. Carlos finds himself somewhat upset, but more because an ex-boyfriend of Cecil’s is pressed up against the front door than the fact that said ex-boyfriend is a ghost. He’s been living in Night Vale for too long.

“Well, we dated our freshman year of college,” Cecil explains. “We thought we were madly in love—which of course was silly, I mean, obviously I’ve never truly been in love with anybody but you.” Carlos feels his cheeks go red; most things Cecil says pertaining to him tend to have that effect. “But we were young, and… Anyway, he died in a car accident on March fourth. And of course I was devastated at the time, but eventually I moved on because he was dead. But just as soon as I was done mourning, Jason showed up on my doorstep, going on and on about how he still loved me and how we could still make at work and listen Carlos, I don’t want you to think that I’m not an open-minded person, because I am. I’m very post modern! But a human and a ghost in a relationship is just _weird_.”

“I… can’t say that I disagree,” Carlos says, and Cecil beams.

“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that, Carlos! I was worried that you would; being a man of science you must have seen some very strange relationships in your life—oh, but I’m getting off topic. So yes, Jason showed up and kept following me around everywhere, moaning all of that ‘finding love after death’ stuff, but I had moved on! It got very tiresome very quickly, but when I asked him to leave me alone he just wouldn’t! He kept following me everywhere, and then he started possessing things in my dorm room and making me see things in the mirror, and _then_ —you’ll never believe this, Carlos—he tried to convince me to kill myself so we could be together forever in death! That was when I put my foot down and went to the City Council to get a restraining order.”

“Ah. So, the restraining order must have expired,” Carlos guesses, and Cecil nods, looking absolutely miserable.

“It expires every year, and usually I remember to get it renewed, but with all the excitement in my life recently I just plain forgot.” Cecil sighs. “He can’t enter the house, thankfully, but as soon as I step out the door he’ll follow me around everywhere until the new restraining order is signed.” Cecil glares at Jason through the window; Jason grins and presses a kiss against the glass in response. “Ugh!” Cecil shudders. “I can’t believe I’m going to have to be dealing with this all the way down to the court house.”

“Do you want me to go with you?” Carlos offers. “Maybe he’ll be deterred if he sees you’re with someone else.”

“Oh, I wish, but he was always the jealous type; I think he’d be much more likely to possess you and make you jump into Radon Canyon, or worse.” Cecil sighs. “No, I’d better go alone. At least he won’t hurt me.”

“Oh. Well…” Carlos pauses, struggling to think of how he can wipe the distressed misery from Cecil’s face. “How about you go get the restraining order renewed, and when you get back, we’ll have a late breakfast and just take a nice, relaxing day at home?”

Carlos feels bad that he can’t offer more than that, but Cecil’s face lights up at the offer. “Oh, that sounds wonderful!” he chirps, moving to embrace Carlos and kiss him soundly, leaving Carlos dazed and rather breathless. “You’re such a good boyfriend, Carlos. I’m a lucky guy.”

Cecil nestles his head against Carlos’ neck, nuzzling. Carlos can see Jason staring at them through the door window, eyes quite literally burning in anger as he watches.

Carlos blows a raspberry at him.


End file.
